trough
noun · verb
Simple meaning
A long, narrow container, open on top, for feeding or watering animals.
Pronunciation
Say it like this:
trawfIPA pronunciation (US)
ˈtɹɔf
This word is pronounced essentially the same in American and British English, so one transcription covers both.
IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) is a standard way of writing speech sounds.
Definition
Everyday modern meanings first, grouped by part of speech.
noun
A long, narrow container, open on top, for feeding or watering animals.
A long narrow shallow receptacle
A concave shape with an open top
A long, narrow depression between waves or ridges; the low portion of a wave cycle.
Any similarly shaped container.
A narrow depression (as in the earth or between ocean waves or in the ocean bed)
verb
To eat in a vulgar style, as if from a trough.
Word Aura™
How this word commonly comes across.
Aura for this meaning
This meaning: A long, narrow container, open on top, for feeding or watering animals.
Used this way, trough is a reasonably familiar word that usually carries little praise or criticism of its own. It usually sounds natural in a wide range of settings.
- Emotional tone
- Neutral
- Formality
- Neutral
- Intensity
- Not strongly marked
- How common
- Moderately common
- Connotation
- Matter-of-fact
- Usage feel
- Neutral and straightforward
Word Aura describes common impressions, not a measurement. Tone changes with sentence, speaker, relationship and situation.
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Dictionary data from Wiktionary via the Free Dictionary API. Simple meanings, combinations and word intelligence are built from verified reference data, no AI is used to load this page.